Abstract. We consider a linear mixed-effects model where Y k,j = α k +β k tj +ε k,j is the observed value for individual k at time tj, k = 1, . . . , N , j = 1, . . . , J. The random effects α k , β k are independent identically distributed random variables with unknown densities fα and f β and are independent of the noise. We develop nonparametric estimators of these two densities, which involve a cutoff parameter. We study their mean integrated square risk and propose cutoff-selection strategies, depending on the noise distribution assumptions. Lastly, in the particular case of fixed interval between times tj, we show that a completely data driven strategy can be implemented without any knowledge on the noise density. Intensive simulation experiments illustrate the method.